Lebanon's Internal Security Forces detained A. Berri, a teacher from the southern town of Tebnine, on suspicion of spying for Israel, media reports said Thursday. An Nahar and al-Akhbar and a-Safir dailies reported the ISF intelligence department had put the man under close watch for seven months before his arrest on Wednesday afternoon.

The suspect is not a relative of Speaker Nabih Berri, Naharnet reported.

Al-Akhbar quoted sources at the ISF directorate as saying that the 54-year-old man admitted to spying for Israel. Berri told investigators that T.H., who has escaped to Israel, had recruited him.

A high-level security source told al-Akhbar that Berri confessed during interrogation that the Israelis had asked him to stop his spying activities last April following the discovery of several cells working for the Israeli intelligence in Lebanon.